Brain-work, Alcohol and Tobacco.
James Parton concludes a recent very suggestive article upon the habits and death of Bayard Taylor, whom he had, as a personal friend, warned against the danger of wine and beer drinking and smoking, as follows:— “Mental labor is not hostile to health and life; but I am more than ever convinced that a man who lives by his brain is of all men bound to avoid stimulating his brain. In this climate, to stimulate the brain by alcohol and tobacco is only a slow kind of suicide. Even the most moderate use of the mildest wine is not without danger, because the peculiar exhaustion caused by severe mental labor is a constant and urgent temptation to increase the quantity and strength of the potation. I would say to every young man in the United States, if I could reach him, if you mean to attain one of the prizes of your profession and live a cheerful life to the age of eighty, throw away your dirty old pipe, put your cigars in the stove, never buy any more, become an absolute teetotaler, take your dinner in the middle of the day, and rest one day in seven.”